Murder And Violent Crime: Houston Vs Chicago

One of my friends on the “big party line” E-mailed me this chart comparing Houston, Texas and Chicago, Illinois:

In fairness, Chicago proper had only 584 murders in 2012, and reported 506. The actual homicide rate is 21.6; and the City’s fictional murder rate is 18.7. That is more than double Houston’s 9.3 homicide rate, where a self defense shooting is almost a daily event.

Houston’s robbery rate was only 376 per 100,000, and the Harris County DA’s habit of charging everyone charged with anything else with aggravated assault as well has inflated Houston’s Aggravated Assault rate to 554.6.

It is unfortunate that Chicago does not accurately report the crimes reported to the Chicago Police Department. Chicago’s official robbery rate was 517.0 and their aggravated assault rate was officially 459.5; but both of those numbers are far below reality. In particular, Anita Alvarez’ office seldom piles any charges on top of the bare minimum. As a result, Chicago’s arrest to conviction ratio is among the lowest in the United States.